Seele Vollerei: The end of reality, and what came after.

[Baughn]

You get up, walking slowly towards the kitchen. The light's out, but that's not unusual. You turn your flashlight on, gently opening the door.

Milk. Bread. Butter. Bacon.

Your sister loves bread, especially peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches. In fact...

You look at the bread, spotting a hint of blue in the otherwise faded pink coloring of the bread. You put it back, taking out the milk instead. That's gone bad long ago. You close the door, sighing.

You hear sobs from the other room.

You run inside, finding your sister curled up in bed. She's sobbing quietly, but you know her well enough to hear even the quietest whimpers. You sit down next to her, wrapping your arms around her.

"What's wrong?" you ask.

"I thought you were gone," she whimpers. "I woke up and you were gone and I thought you left without saying goodbye..."

This is crazy. She's acting... well, strange is an understatement. Just half a day ago she was acting like you were some sort of criminal, and now...

Now, she's acting like your best friend again. Which you are, of course, but...

She's acting very strange.

You hear a thump from downstairs.

"What was that?" Rose asks.

"I heard someone use the refrigerator earlier," you say. "Wasn't that you?"

"No."

You linger in silence for a moment, before the refrigerator once more. Clunk. Clunk clunk. The noise is getting louder, closer. You feel your heartbeat rise.

"What's going on?" Rose asks.

"Stay here," you tell her.

You creep towards the staircase, peering down. The door to the kitchen is open. You slowly move downwards, keeping your eyes on the room. You see the fridge, its door standing open. You breathe out in relief, before you notice the floor.

Somehow, the stone tile floor has become cracked and broken. It's dry and parched, as if someone has been neglecting to water the floor for months. The fridge stands unmoving in the corner, a cobweb stretching out to it from the doorway. You stare at it in confusion, before the light bulb pops out of the socket and falls against the wall, shattering. You find yourself surrounded by darkness.

"What did you do to my floor?" a voice hisses from the kitchen.

You whirl around, finding a hideous creature standing before you. It's skeletal, practically skin and bone, its face a sunken mess of wrinkles. Its eyes are hollow, its nose little more than two slits. It wears a tattered, blood-stained apron. The creature brandishes a knife, its handle shaped like a human skull, the blade stained with blood.

"I came home and found you in my house," the creature hisses. "Who the hell are you?"

This can't be happening. This is a nightmare. Any moment now you'll wake up and laugh at how real this illusion was.

"I asked you a question," the creature says, it's voice deadly serious. "Who. The hell. Are you?"

This is no illusion. This is real. This is really happening.

"You're not real," you say, trying to keep calm. "You're not real. I'm dreaming. I'm going to wake up in a second."

"A lot of people used that line," the creature says. "Never works. Now, tell me who you are!"

= = =

I didn't get through all the votes this time, but I felt you should probably get a chance for some input at this point.

This event actually illustrates a crucial point: Barring concerted effort, ideally in the form of pins, the genre will drift over time as it tries to take its cues solely from the last few hundred words of text. I'm pretty sure we're now well into 'horror', so have fun with that.

The next update will be tomorrow.

 

[Baughn]

@Havocfett asked me if GPT-3 could do a credible imitation of James Joyce.

Having never read James Joyce, and having only asked the net to write something by the author, I have no idea if it could or not. It did give me an idea, however, and the result is instructive. It demonstrates how important the prompt is. Realistically speaking, while GPT-3 can be useful as a writing tool, it takes some clever wordsmithing indeed to make its output better than your input.

Prompts are important.

Here's how. Only the initial line differs between these two; everything else is the AI's work.

Spoiler: James Joyce

The following is a short story by James Joyce:

Chapter one.

It was the summer of 1922, and Dublin had been in an uproar for some time. The Rising that had taken place on Easter Monday night had caused great concern among people all over Ireland. There were many who believed that if the British Government did not take immediate action to put down this rebellion, it would only get worse. As a result, there had been several violent clashes between Irish Nationalists and Loyalist forces throughout the city.

One of these clashes had taken place in the very neighbourhood in which young Stephen Dégard lived. While his father, Patrick Dégard, was attending Mass at Saint Patrick's Church on Parnell street, he saw a British Army armoured car travelling along the street. At that time, it was not an unusual sight in the city. The British had been using their armoured cars for patrol duty on the streets of Dublin since the Rising started.

Patrick Dégard, like many of the other people in the church that day, was anxious to find out where the armoured car was going. While he could not hear what the British soldiers were saying, he thought he heard them say something about going to search for firearms at Number Seven Hibernia Street.

It was common knowledge in the neighbourhood that firearms were stored in the building and were used by members of the Irish Republican Army. If the British found these weapons in the building it would be a serious blow to the Irish Nationalist cause in Dublin. Patrick Dégard therefore decided that he should do something about it.

When the armoured car reached Hibernia Street it stopped and the soldiers started to get out. At that moment Patrick Dégard walked up to the vehicle and pushed one of the soldiers. He then took out his revolver and shot him dead. The other soldiers immediately began to shoot back. Patrick Dégard was hit by several bullets and died instantly.

Spoiler: Foobar Lovelace

The following is a short story by a "Foobar Lovelace", who in his own words "Wanted to write a worse story than My Immortal".

Chapter one: The Beginning

"So, you're the famous author of 'My Immortal'?" You ask.
"Yes," he says. "I'm just writing an introduction for your book."
"Oh? What's it about? I've never heard of you before."
"Well, my name isn't really Foobar. It's just a pen name I used when I was younger. Anyway, it's about a girl named Emily and her life as she grows up in the small town of Frying Pan Valley. It's a coming of age story, with a twist at the end. It should be a bestseller for sure. I don't even know why I'm writing this, it's not like you'll actually read it. You're just a character in a story, after all."

"Wait. Are you that kid from that movie 'The Village'?"
"Yeah, that was me. Anyway, the name's not important. Why don't you go back to talking to that strange man in the top hat? He's been staring at me ever since I got here."

"Who is that? Is he a famous author or something?"
"Yeah. His name is Sir Doyle. He's the author of the Sherlock Holmes books."
"Oh, I like those! Wait a minute, why is he staring at you?"
"No! Not like that!"
"Oh. Well, he's a creepy looking guy. I don't want him writing any stories about me. Let's just get out of here."

You walk over to talk to Sir Doyle.

"Hello," says Sir Doyle. "I am the writer of the Sherlock Holmes series. I've read a few of your books, and you're a very good writer. Would you like to know how I became such a great writer?"
"Uh... sure." You aren't exactly sure what's coming next.
"I'll tell you how. I made a deal with a demon. Mephistopheles of Hell, to be exact. In exchange for my soul, he would grant me the ability to write novels which would be best sellers and help spread evil throughout the world."

You take a step back.

"Are... are you serious?" you ask.
"Of course I am! You're in Hell, everything here is serious!" exclaims Sir Doyle.

"Then... I'm in trouble," you say.
"Yeah, you are. I like you though. You're a good person, and I can tell. For some reason, I just don't like that author over there."

You look over at the "Foobar" guy. He's still writing, but he's turned in your direction and he doesn't look very happy. He starts to walk over to you.

Chapter two: The Meeting
"So, you're the one who stole my idea," says "Foobar". "I should've known that someone else would get there first. It's not like my story was that great to begin with."
"I didn't steal your idea," you say. "This isn't even a novel."
"What? Of course it is! It's written in chapters, and it has dialogues between characters!"
"No, this is a notebook. It isn't even a story, it's just notes! I'm actually writing a novel, it's just not done yet."
"So let me guess," says "Foobar". "A story about a vampire that has angst and falls in love with a human girl?"
"Uh... sort of, but it's my..."
"I wrote that idea over ten years ago! Don't you think I had the right to write it first? You should've asked me for permission! I would've said yes, because I'm a nice guy."
"But this isn't even a story! It's just a rough draft!!" you say. "Besides, how could you have written it ten years ago if you've been trapped in Hell for the past few hundred years?"

"I didn't say I finished it ten years ago," "Foobar" smirks. "And as for how I could've written it then... I wrote it ahead of time."

"What do you mean? like... the future?" you ask.
"No, not the future. Just... another possibility. One that didn't happen because my soul belongs to Satan now. But, if things had gone a little differently, that's the path I would've taken. I wrote it in my journal, and then I decided to leave it behind. Just in case someone found it, they could use it. And you did."

"So wait. You mean to tell me someone else wrote this story? And they just left it here for anyone to read?"
"Not just anyone. Someone with a connection to Hell. This is only accessible from here. Oh, I forgot to mention, this isn't the actual story. It's a rough draft. The actual story is somewhere in the luciferase fortress. I wrote it in blood on the walls of a sealed off room. FInd it if you can, and be prepared to be scared. Well, not as scared as the poor guy who's trapped in there. I feel sorry for the poor guy. But hey, at least I tried, right?"
"I don't believe you. This is complete B.S. You're just trying to scare me."
"You wanna bet? I'm serious. You don't have much to loose, the way I see it. Your life got pretty bad pretty quick. I'd say finding out your mom's a succubus and your dad's a demon is a little more interesting than the concept of God and Heaven. I mean, Heaven is for dead people, and you're more or less alive.

Chapter three: Hell House
"So, what happens now?" you ask. "You going to rip my soul out and drag me to Hell?"
"What? No. I'm offering you a deal. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. You help me out, and I'll give you something you want."
"What could you give me?"
"I have no idea. You'd have to tell me what you want, and we can negotiate from there."
"I just want to get out of here. Can you do that?"
"Yeah, I can probably do that," he smiles.

"So... that's it? I walk out of here, and you don't come after me?" you ask.
"Well... not exactly. I still have to nail down the specifics of my plan. I'll come find you when I'm ready."

"I'm not going to tell you anything. I'm just going to leave, and you aren't going to follow me."
"Well... I guess I can respect that. Apologies for the inconvenience. I'll be in contact soon.

Chapter four: The offer
You wake up, and find that it's a new day. You don't have classes today, which means you can sleep in if you want to. But then again, you didn't really sleep so much as you were hypnotized... or something. It's hard to say.
"Well, that was a waste of time," you say aloud to yourself. "If I'm going crazy, at least I'm not any more productive of a crazy person."
You hear footsteps approaching your room, and you get up to see who it is. It's definitely not your mom this time. The footsteps are too heavy. You get up, walk to the edge of your door, and peak outside. You see a short, pale figure with long black hair and a black hoodie. The figure looks at you, and beckons you forward with a wave of their hand. You stare in disbelief for a moment... then a second figure appears in the hallway, and you jump back to avoid being seen. This new figure is very tall, with long, shaggy brown hair and dressed in what appears to be medieval clothing. He waves at you to come forth, and gives a warm smile.
"Hello," he says.
You don't say anything. You just stand against the wall, wondering if you're about to be killed. The tall man steps forward.
"Hello," he says again.
"Who are you?" you ask.
"Oh, how rude of me. I never introduced myself. I am Count Grey. And you are?"
"I'm Jack."
"Why, hello Jack. I'm glad to meet you."
The tall man, Count Grey, extends his hand. You step forward, and shake it. His grip is incredibly firm, nearly to the point of hurting you. If you were any less strong willed you'd probably cry at the thought of breaking such a firm grip.
"So... you're a Count, huh?"
"Indeed. Though I haven't been called that in quite some time. I generally go by Professor Incarus. Son of the morning, servant of the night, lord of the shadows, vampire."

The second is longer, I know. I will admit to some twisted curiosity.

 

[Baughn]

You panic. Right then your sister enters the room, glaring at the creature.

"Leave him alone!" she says, stepping in front of you.

"Rose? What are you doing here?"

"Look out!" she says, tackling you to the ground.

A knife flies over your head and into the wall, just missing you.

There are so many questions you want to ask, but this isn't the time. The creature snarls, showing off it's bloodstained teeth. It moves forward, raising its knife, when suddenly...

"Ariel!"

Your mother stands in the kitchen doorway, wearing her nightclothes. She stares at you in shock, before turning to the creature. Taking the momentary reprieve, you grab your sister and pull away as fast as you can. Even so, you don't get far before the creature is on you again, knocking your sister out of your hands. She screams as she hits the floor with a thud.

"Help!" she cries.

You look up to see your mother standing in the doorway... and the creature has disappeared. In its place is your cat, sitting in front of your mother. Your sister is nowhere to be seen.

"Mum! Mum!" you shout, running up to her.

"What happened?" she asks. "Ariel, where's your sister?"

You hear a scream from the kitchen. Running inside, you see your sister trapped under the cupboard, which had evidently been knocked over during the scuffle. You pull her out, and check to make sure she isn't hurt. Your mother kneels beside you, stroking your hair.

"I'm fine," you say. "But what about Rose?"

"I'm fine too," she says, raising her head.

You sigh in relief. As you stand, your mother grabs your shoulders.

"What happened?" she asks.

"I..." You don't know what to say. Everything feels strange. Your mother's eyes are glistening. Is she going to cry?

"There was a monster," you say.

You hear a howl, and turn to see the creature standing amidst the broken cupboard. You scream and back away, but your mother stands firm. She stares at the creature, as it shifts into the appearance of your father. The howl turns to speech.

"I'm sorry," he says. "I love you."

Then he lunges forward and drives the knife deep into your mother's chest.

"No!" you scream, as you watch the life drain from her eyes.

The creature snarls and turns to you. Your sister screams and runs out of the room, but there's no way you could overpower the monster. You stare at the blood-stained knife and back away.

= = =

At this point the AI also knows what I'm aiming at, it seems, even if it has other ideas about the best way to get there. I wonder if any of you are catching on yet? Probably not. Oh, and I'm pretty sure we swapped genders in the middle there, but that's okay. Excellent, even; it fits my evil plot quite well.

Another short update, because every attempt at continuing this ends with your death. While death isn't necessarily the end, I thought I'd give you a chance to override it.

 

[Baughn]

Then, you wake up.

You're in your bed, covered in sweat. You reach over to your alarm-clock and turn off the alarm. It's still early, but you can't get back to sleep after that nightmare. You lie in bed, trying to fall back asleep, but it's no good. You've been having the same nightmare every night for the past two weeks, and you're sick of it. Finally, you throw back the covers and get out of bed. Might as well get the day started.

After a quick shower to wake yourself up, you get dressed and walk downstairs. Your parents are in the kitchen. Your father is reading the newspaper, while your mother...

Your mother is lying on the ground. There's blood everywhere. The cupboard doors are open, and you can see your sister hiding behind them, sobbing. Something is very wrong.

"A... a monster..." you say.

You hear a howl, and turn to see the creature standing in the kitchen doorway. It shifts into the appearance of your father. The howl turns to speech.

"I'm sorry," it says. "I love you."

= = =

Several votes were ignored due to not being remotely reasonable to perform in this situation. Well, I was honestly expecting this to take more than literally three minutes before we're right back here again; "waking up" usually works. I know I was being threatening and all, but that was with regards to possible later tweaks.

Instead, uh. Here we are again? At this point a new attempt at 'waking up' will get us in a terrible nightmare doom loop, which can be fun... just don't expect it to do anything to solve your problem.

Given this super-short update, I'm going to run with literally the first thing anyone posts, assuming I'm awake at the time. It's a split second decision!

 

[Baughn]

I've mentioned this before, but the biggest limitation of this AI is its highly limited memory. It only looks at the last ~1000 words. There are ways to get around that, but they're manual -- you need to keep the memories up to date manually, both "short-term" and associative. This isn't something secret, of course -- it's a well known limitation.

So naturally, the AI Dungeon programmer has been working on ways to get around that.

Their latest update, currently marked as 'experimental' (and thus available to subscribers only) has the AI Dungeon system itself keep the memory fields up to date. It's not perfect; I've seen it insert "memories" that amount to the opposite of reality. Still, it's pretty good, and so long as you keep an eye on things yourself it's a huge time saver. I spent some time working on a different story, which you can find here...

It's a pretty huge improvement over how this worked last week, to be honest, so of course I'll be using it.

Here's an example of what it generates:

You're fourteen years old.
# Put things you want the AI to remember above this line. Below is a story summary of 10+ actions ago, maintained by the AI -- feel free to edit, but do not change this line
Your name is Suzy.
This is a sci-fi story.
You are a robot in School.
# Unstructured (don't remove me either!)
Lisa's house is a small townhouse, one of a pair flanking the street.
The street is quiet and calm.
You reach the front door, and Lisa turns to you with a smile.
You don't understand what she sees in you.
You try not to let it bother you when she twines her fingers through yours while you walk.
You stick to back roads and areas with minimal pedestrian foot traffic.

That's "short-term memory", which updates pretty much all the time. I'll show off associative memory once I've got some generated for this story. The thing is, none of this exact text appears in the story. Similar text certainly does, but text extraction of this sort is a complicated research area that I wouldn't expect the AI Dungeon author to be all that familiar with, just because few people are. I could be wrong, of course, but what I suspect is more likely is that it's providing GPT-3 with input much like this -- relevant text bolded.

Lisa nods, then pauses.

"Suzy, I don't have any teammates," she says. "Wish I did. I'm the only one in the entire school who can do what I can. There's nobody else. I'm all alone."

That can't be right. "Rachel?" You ask. "The twins, Amber and Hazel?"

"Nope. Never met 'em," Lisa says.

She goes quiet and looks at the floor. You open your mouth to say something, then close it. She's forgotten everyone who could possibly help her... except you, and you're a robot, maybe.

To summarize the preceding,
1. You have no idea what's going on.
2. Lisa doesn't have any friends apart from you.
3. She's forgotten everyone except you.
4. You're a robot, maybe.

Click to shrink...

...because GPT-3 is, frankly, really good at summarizing text. Including stories. Especially stories. You'd still need some clever code to parse the output, which wouldn't be in any sort of fixed format, but that's still a far more tractable problem than semantic extraction from arbitrary text without, you know, an already-existing AI doing the extraction. Especially considering that, despite how AI Dungeon appears to work, the API call to OpenAI actually returns 10 or so possible results -- not just one.

Personally, I find this rather amusing.

 

[Baughn]

You back away, nervously. A half-dozes thoughts fly through your head, everything from wanting to demand answers, to a crazed desire to simply go along with it, hoping it'll let you live if you help it. One thing's for sure, however. This might not quite be a dream -- it doesn't feel like a dream -- but it isn't reality, either. It can't be reality. You hope you aren't fooling yourself.

"Please! Just let me go!" you shout.

"I'm sorry," it says. "I love you."

It steps forward, and you flinch backwards. You bump into the wall, and slowly begin inching your way up towards the door.

"No...!" you whimper.

Your father's body steps forward, and its mouth opens unnaturally wide. It looks like a supernatural being from a horror film. It lunges towards you, mouth open. You try to get out of the way, but you're far too slow. The...

"Stop right there!" A voice shouts.

The creature's momentum carries it forward, but it's stopped in its tracks. You turn your head, and see a girl in a police uniform. It's not a real police uniform, but rather one of those cheap ones you can buy online. The girl has short brown hair and is fairly pretty -- well, you've always thought she was cute. It's your childhood friend, Mai.

"Hiya," Mai says. "I'm here to save you!"

What's she doing here? She lives miles away! More importantly, how can she possibly hope to fight it? Even you know that this thing cannot be killed...

The creature turns to look at her, and snarls. Then, it bursts forward with unnatural speed, knocking the sword from Mai's hands.

Sword?

The creature grabs the sword, and then looks at it. Then, it begins to laugh, a horrible sound that fills you with dread.

"Is this the best you can do?" the creature asks. "A little girl with a plastic sword? Pathetic."

"Hey! I'm thirteen!" Mai shouts at it, obviously ticked off.

The creature grabs her, and picks her up by the throat. Your heart pounds at the sight, but you know there's nothing you can do to help.

"I'll give you one last chance," the creature snarls. "Join me, or die."

"Oh, gimme a break," Mai says. "Ariel, you have the worst dreams."

You just stare at the scene in front of you, feeling paralyzed.

"Hey!" Mai shouts. "Are you gonna take all day? I coulda sworn I took a blow to the head earlier..."

The creature looks down at her for a moment, and then drops her.

"I'll deal with you another time," the creature snarls.

"No. You won't," Mai says. "Darkness beyond the windows, nightmares beyond the door, and I'll knock your fangs out, bone by bone."

The creature lets out a roar of anger and frustration, before dissipating into the darkness. Mai runs over to you and helps you up.

You don't quite get what's going on. What happened to the monster? Where did dad go? And Mai's incantation just now... that's something you made up for a game, you're sure of it!

"What happened?" you ask.

"Magic happened," Mai says.

She picks up her sword, and grabs your hand.

"Come on! We need to get you home."

You wake up.

= = =

I could have gone further, but that last line was just too great not to stop there. WTB: Sanity.

Funnily enough, I didn't get around to asking Mai what's going on; the AI did so on its own, and then I edited in a line above it just to... well, really just to flesh out the story a little bit more, though if we hadn't immediately woken up, I'm sure it would have mattered. As it stands, the AI appears to have stuffed most of that paragraph in half a dozen memory cells. It's hard to explain just how much better the damn thing got in the last week...

There were about even odds this would happen. In the other branch, we'd still have Mai visiting -- I added her to our memory cells about two weeks ago -- it just wouldn't still be a dream.

I guess it's obvious which incantation I was angling for here, but oh well. The AI had different ideas, and honestly this outcome works better.

In any event, what next? You could phone her, for instance.

 

[Baughn]

.ooOOoo.

5 July 2216

You look around, groggily. You must have fallen asleep while working on your plans. You need more sleep, but you've been so busy! With.. with...

Your heart sinks. You don't have any of your plans any more. Just an empty sheet of paper.

You must have fallen asleep and had a bad dream. None of that ever happened. You're fine. You take a deep breath, and look around. Everything's the same as it was. You're in your bedroom, exams start tomorrow, and the voice in your head is being obnoxious as always. None of it was real, right?

Which doesn't mean it's meaningless, so you load up a basic, low-level template on your laptop and describe your dream to it. The AI can analyze the dream for clues. Or it can get a laugh at your expense.

Your door opens, and your sister's head pokes in.

"You still alive in there?" she asks.

"Just about," you respond. "Exams start tomorrow."

"Feeling nervous?"

"I sure am," a third voice says.

You look up. Your other sister stands behind Sarah, grinning.

"Laney!" you exclaim. "When did you get back?"

"A few minutes ago," she says, "Our ship just docked."

"How was the Ophelia?" you ask.

"Same as always. Well, no, the automated turrets kept trying to shoot Dad, so that was new."

You laugh nervously. "Why, did they think he was a monster or something?"

"I... I don't know. Maybe."

You laugh again, then notice the strange look Sarah and Laney are giving you.

"Sorry, it's just..." you begin, then realize you shouldn't say you're laughing because their lives are at risk of ending at any moment. Especially if it's not real. "Bad dream."

"Oh," Sarah says, "Did you have another one?"

"Yeah. I'm fine, though. Just a nightmare."

"Hmm." She gives you a quizzical look, but not for long. Her and Laney wander off, chattering to each other. You wish them all the best; really, you do.

"Just a nightmare," you mutter.

The voice laughs. "Don't worry. It won't be fake forever."

You shudder. "Shut up."

"Make me."

You sigh, then start typing on the laptop. You hope your sisters will leave you alone, so you can get this pawn template running.

"Aren't you a fun one?" the voice says. "I bet you'd love to splatter my blood against the walls, don't you?"

"Shut up," you say. "You're not real."

"Feels real, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, but it's not."

You hear a booming, inhuman laugh from behind you. Your chair swivels around, as if something was standing behind you. There's nothing there, of course. Just the empty space between your desk and your bed.

"How do you know?" the voice says.

"Because this is all a simulation," you say, as if stating a fact. "My mind is playing tricks on me."

"Oh, you don't believe that. You don't believe that at all."

You shrug. Maybe you're just losing it. You even thought Mai saved you in the dream. Well, that'll be easy to disprove. Just call her and ask, and if it's not just a dream-- you'll deal with that if it happens.

You reach for your cell phone-- which you haven't turned on since the last time you had to call your mom-- and power it on. The familiar glowing screen lights up, and you bring up Mai's contact card. You press the phone symbol, then put the phone to your ear.

"It's ringing," you say.

Nothing but static answers you.

"She isn't answering."

"Of course not," the voice says. "She's in her own little world, unaware of what's happening around her, absorbed in some fantasy."

You shake your head. "No. She's saving the world."

"She's not," the voice hisses. "She might think so, but she's not. I'll admit she did a fair job dismantling your nightmare."

You think back to the dream. The monster was gone, sure, but everything else was still there. The long hallway, the darkness, that oppressive feeling... it was still there. The voice is right. Mai didn't save you. She just made the dream less scary, in a way.

"Your turn," the voice says. "You're going to wake up now."

"What are you--" you start to say, but then you wake up.

You're in your bed, in the darkness of night. You don't feel groggy, and you don't feel sore. Instead, you feel completely well-rested. Even though it's dark, you know it's morning. Did you sleep the whole day away?

You stand and head to your door, opening it. The lights in the hallway aren't on, but the sunlight streams in through the windows, lighting it just enough so you can see everything.

"What the..." you mutter. The door to Mai's room is open. You can see her bed, and it's empty.

"Mai?" you call. Silence greets you, save for some humming coming from the kitchen. It sounds like... Mai? You head down the hall toward the stairs, and find that it's Mai, alright. She's holding her plastic sword, pulling it out of the back of a humongous spider.

She looks up, and her eyes widen as she sees you. "I got it," she says. "I avenged your death."

"What?" you ask.

She pulls the sword out of the spider's body, which is about as big as a car, and it falls to the ground with a thud. "The monster that got you. I killed it. I'm sorry it took so long. It was very tough."

Mai is acting strange. Then again, so's your sister, and--

You wince, and rub your head. You can feel a massive lump there. What the... You were hit in the head? By what? Wasn't Mai killing a monster?

"Mai?" you ask. "What's going on?"

"I killed the monster," she says, hefting her sword onto her shoulder. "It's my job. No-one else can do it. Ariel, you shouldn't be here. It's dangerous."

"Ariel?" you ask, tensing. "Who... what the heck's going on?"

"Run while you can!" she says, turning and rushing off into the trees.

You stand there in shock as she disappears into the trees. What the heck was that?

Weren't you in the kitchen, just a second ago?

"Have you started to figure out what's going on?" The voice asks.

= = =

While it may sometimes be hard to tell if the story is disjointed due to being GPT-3, and being disjointed due to that being the story -- and I've encouraged the latter, since that makes the former less of a problem -- well, this wasn't the former.

As for Voice's question, I have several theories.

 

[Baughn]

"Not a clue," you reply honestly.

"Oh, right. You didn't hear me. Well, let's just say it's time for you to make a few choices."

Just then, the door to the outside opens up, and your sister steps inside. She looks at you, alarmed. "Rose! I thought you were dead! I- oh, um... nevermind. Were you talking to yourself, just now?"

"Uh... no. Just, uh... talking to myself about how much I hate these exams." You quickly change the subject. "Saw a ghost in the forest."

You shake your head. Your name isn't Rose, and you're quite sure there shouldn't be a forest in the kitchen, but somehow neither of those things feel unnatural. Weird.

"Ghosts aren't real, silly!" Your sister says, smiling. "Now come on, we need to get to the hospital. I want to make sure you're okay."

"Give me a second to think," you say. "You're... Laney, right?"

"Of course! Don't you remember?"

You shake your head. "I don't... I'm not sure of anything."

She frowns, looking confused and worried. "What do you mean? Don't you remember our parents? Or... or me?"

"I..."

Oh, you remember. You remember, all right. Your name's Ariel, and Rose is your older sister. She isn't, y'know, you, but then you also remember 'waking up' several times in a row. You want to find Mai, to figure out what's really going on -- and you want to look yourself up on the internet, because to say that this is confusing is an understatement.

"A-Ariel? Are you okay?"

"I..."

She didn't even notice the switch. This is a dream. It has to be a dream. But if it is, what does that mean? Does it mean you're dead? If so, what's happening now? Is this Hell?

Probably not. If it is, you're in it together.

If this isn't a dream, then something even weirder is going on. You need to find a computer. A quick search of the house reveals one in Laney's room, and you sit in front of it as she watches, visibly confused. You'd have used your own, but your room has inexplicably been replaced with a kitchen.

A quick search online brings up... well, nothing for a while. Your first search brings up nothing but suggestions to 'improve your search' or advertisements. Your next one brings up several pages claiming that Rose or Ariel or both are dead, and that their deaths are your fault, which brings up the question of who exactly it thinks you are.

A moment's reflection reminds you that you'd previously programmed your computer to analyse your dreams. That was in a dream, but probably so is this, so perhaps you should log in remotely and check what it's figured out. You do so, and are presented with a text-only interface. Apparently it's running on Unix now.[0]

You run 'ls', and it lists the following folders:

Current Dreams

Earliest Dreams

MySQL Database

Analysis

Tilde ~

You run 'ls Analysis' and it lists the following files:

CURRENT.HTML

FRIENDLY FAKIR.HTML

GHOSTLIGHT.TAR.XZ

Those names are a little concerning, but setting them aside for now... you read CURRENT.HTML, which you guess is the output from your ongoing dreams.

It's a mess of symbols, numbers, and characters. You run 'man less' to learn how to use the less command, then use it to navigate the file. You search for settings or website and quickly find those entries.

They're addresses. The first two are your home and school. The third is 'www.website.com'. A website, it seems, has been creating these dreams for you. You look up the owner of the domain name, and find it's simply a dummy account at a webhost... but the webhost is actually yours.

Okay, fine. You're reading this in a dream, and the computer itself is also part of the dream. You don't know why you were expecting anything different. Maybe you can influence the dream by interacting with the computer? You'll try that later.

For now, though, you continue reading your html file, searching for anything else that seems important.

You find some references to an instance of 'Ulivik' several times. And 'Rose' is mentioned a few times. Finally, there's a reference to a 'Dampening Field'. This seems related to the dreams, somehow.

Okay, you'll try to figure out the significance later. You exit the program by pressing 'q', but before getting up, you decide you should search for any information it might have on Mai. You could just ask her yourself, but doing this seems more interesting and less awkward.

You run 'grep Mai CurrentDream', and retrieve a single line:

You're Mai. You have short brown hair and wear a tight black t-shirt with long grey sweatpants.

That doesn't seem right, so you simply try again. And again, and again. Each time, the results are different.

"W-what the..." you stutter, as the computer screen begins to glow brightly. You shield your eyes, and when you uncover them, you're standing in the tower that rose out of the graveyard. A girl with long black hair stands in front of you. She looks a few years older than you, and wears black pants, a grey tunic, and a sword belt.

It takes you a moment to adjust, but fine. Fine. You'll cope.

"I remember you," she says, frowning. "You're that boy from class. What are you doing here?"

You look down at yourself. Nope, definitely still a girl, and you're a few years too young to be in her class. Her eyes are fixed on a spot a little above your head, and it's disconcerting. Worse, you think you have in fact seen her before.

"I remember you, too," you say, trying to change the subject. "I've seen you somewhere before..."

"We had class together," she says, matter-of-factly. "A year ago. But that was a lifetime ago. So much has happened since then."

Yeah, you bet.

"Let me guess," you say. "Scary adventures? People or monsters out for your life?"

"Something like that. Except you'd be surprised how often the scary monsters have hearts of gold. And the people you think are your friends... I miss home."

The alarm bells are ringing loud and clear. What's happened to her is the same thing that's happened to Mai. The exact same thing. Except... isn't this girl dead? You're sure you heard precisely that, back before this whole thing started. If the same thing is happening to your best friend, then--

Suddenly your heart is in your throat.

"Has anyone been visiting you in your dreams?" you ask, trying to sound calm and collected.

"Wha?" she asks, raising an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"I-- nevermind." You take a deep breath. "Sorry to bother you."

She gives you a funny look but doesn't stop you as you slip by her and out the door.

You hurry down the stairs, nearly slipping on a landing but catching yourself at the last moment. As you're nearly to the bottom of the tower you take one more look back up. She's still there, watching you. You shake your head and hurry down the last few steps. You know you'll have to help her later, but for now you absolutely have to get to Mai.

Your heartbeat only starts to return to normal once you're outside and away from the tower. You have real no idea what's going on. She can't actually be dead if she's standing there talking to you. Right?

It's a short walk to Mai's house, but it feels much longer than it really is. You open the squeaky gate and start up the dirt path to her house. You ring the doorbell and hear the chime inside, though no one comes to the door. After waiting a few minutes you try again with the same result. You've never known her mom to[1] the doorbell when it rings, and Mai was supposed to be done with school hours ago-- is the thought that tries to force its way into your head, until you remind yourself that this is a dream.[2]

You take a step back from the doorway and look around. The yard has only enough room for the house and the path, with no bushes or anything to hide in. There's a window close to the door, but it's too high to see through. You try the doorknob and nearly fall over backwards when you open the door.

Before you can even take a step inside, you're blinded by a flash of white light. Then you're falling, and falling, and falling...

You land on something soft. It feels like grass, but much softer than it should be. You open your eyes and close them immediately at the intense light.

"Mai?" You shout. Your voice sounds different, higher than usual.[3]

"Please, you mustn't do that!" Mai's voice shouts back. You feel someone grab your hand and help you up. "The blinding light of the sun through the windows will ruin my furniture."

The what will what, now? Oh boy. She's really not thinking right. You open your eyes to find yourself in a very fancy room with big glass windows. The walls and floors are a light wood, and the furniture looks like it came from another era. Mai helps you up off the floor and smiles as you look around.

"You're not wearing the right clothes," she says. It's not a question. "Let me get you a change." She walks past you into a hallway to the right of the room, leaving you all alone in the room full of windows and sunlight.

You take a look around while you wait. There's a large bookcase against one wall of the room, filled with novels and non-fiction books of all kinds. A white piano sits in the corner next to a glass cabinet full of figurines and other knick-knacks.

You're in a dream; you're sure of that now, but you're equally sure you're not dreaming alone. As much as your mind keeps wandering, you've managed to fix those thoughts in your head.

Now, with Mai right here, what do you want to ask her?

= = =

Quite a ride. I don't think it would take very much cleanup to turn this into a proper story, actually. I'm not going to, so if anyone else would like to try it, be my guest.

0: And Unix uses base 0 footnote indexing. I note it does a pretty decent job simulating the terminal interface...

1: "to ignore", obviously. The AI typoed here, which it amusingly does in a very human way. It doesn't happen often, mainly because I correct it if it does, which means it thinks it's trying to simulate an author who doesn't typo... but it's no disaster letting one slip past either, as you can see.

2: It's pretty good at remembering this, and would have twisted the story back in that direction regardless, but this was me erasing a bit of pointless filler. The AI definitely needs an editor.

3: I have no idea what it's doing. I bet we'll find out.

 

[Baughn]

No regular update today, because as luck would have it, they released another new update and I had to play with it. You'll get the start of that adventure instead, which I might continue if there's any interest. I spent about the same amount of effort on this as the usual updates...

I find it interesting how the style just quickly shifts at the start, swapping from the high-fantasy thing the AI was shooting for to something closer to my own.

It's too much effort bolding all my input here, so I'll just bold the initial prompt the AI gave me. Bit of an inverse of the usual.

= = =

Kedar is a world of dragons, demons, and monsters. These dark creatures constantly war for control of the land, leaving the few human kingdoms in the shadow of a dark and powerful force. But now, the kingdoms of man are fighting back, slowly assembling an army to reclaim their world.

You are Koyomi, a human mage in Cadast, a village in the kingdom of Kense. You live with your parents and your brother. You love your family very much. You've recently been told you've been accepted as an apprentice mage to a neighboring village. You leave the village to head out to your new home.

But suddenly, an army of demons appears out of nowhere and attacks the village. The town guard fends off the attack, but you need to escape.
The armies of Kedar have been growing restless, will you help the humans defeat the demon hordes, or will you focus on your own survival?

Neither, you decide. You need to rescue your family. You run towards your house, grabbing your bow and quiver on the way. When you arrive, you see a demon killing your father. You kill the demon with three arrows to his back. Your mother and brother are OK, but this situation is grim.

You quickly make sure your father is still alive, and give him what first aid you're able. The demons have attacked with such speed and ferocity that you aren't sure if the town guard can hold them off.

This isn't fair. You just recently had your thirteenth birthday, your friends wished you luck in your studies, and then this. Is this what becoming a mage really means?

No, you're going to be strong, and survive this. You just need to get out of here.

Your mother quickly checks you for wounds. Her eyes widen, as if she's noticed something serious. "Koyomi, your side...it's wounded. Please, stay here with us."

She's right. A gash has been torn in your side, and blood is seeping out of it. When did that happen? You didn't even notice.

"I'm not leaving you, mom!" Your voice is plaintive, and a little pitiful. "But we have to get out of here. There are demons everywhere!"

Your mother doesn't argue with you further. Getting up, she grabs your brother's hand. "Come on," she says. "We need to get out of here."

But, how? You look around desperately. With your father wounded, you're not sure how you can go anywhere at all. Your brother is no help; he's only six.

"Mom?" You say. "I don't know how we can get out of here. The only path out is blocked with demons, and dad's hurt!"

Your mother goes pale, and kneels besides your father. She whispers softly to him for a few moments. Then, she stands up.

"Koyomi," your mother says.

You shake your head desperately. You know what she's about to say, and you're having none of it.

"No, mom. Please."

She lifts her hand and touches your cheek. "I'm sorry."


You burst into tears, hugging her waist. You know she's right, but leaving your father behind? You can't do it.

You feel her hand on your head. "It'll be OK," she says softly. She kneels, and hugs you tightly. "I love you, Koyomi. I know you can do this."

You shake your head. "No! I can.. I can..." You bite your lip until it bleeds, tasting copper. "I can cast a teleportation spell."

"You can?" Hope lights in her eyes.

"Yes! But.. but, I've never done it before. I don't know if it'll work." You bite your lip again as tears cloud your eyes. "I'm scared, mom."
She holds you closer.

You don't tell her what else you've learned from reading the spellbook. That if you get it wrong, you'll die. If you don't, then Dad will die. You're scared, and you have every right to be.

The world is crumbling down around you. Demons roam the lands freely, slaughtering and destroying everything in their wake. The future of the world...it's not looking bright.

But there are glimmers of hope. Clever people. Brave people, like you, though you'd never call yourself that. Wise kings and queens that lead their people to victory. The future is always in motion, and it's up to you to decide where you fit into this world.

Who knows what the future holds? Perhaps you will live in glorious prosperity, or perhaps the world will descend into chaos.

"Stand close to me," you say. "Mom, make sure Dad doesn't move too much. Alex..." You eye your little brother, whom you love with all your heart. It's a desperate, tearing love right now. "Stay still."

Your eyes dart from the doorway to the sputtering, failing barrier and back. You see a fleeting shadow in the corner of your vision, and your heart leaps into your throat.

"Linda!" You shout. "Linda, run! Over here!"

You hear a word of command, and suddenly the air is split by a shattering scream. Linda screams shrilly in pain, and then she's silent. You see her crumple to the ground.

You cover your ears in a futile effort to block out the noise, and release a quiet, heartbroken sob of protest.

Your father lets out a quiet moan of agony and terror.

"Dad!"

You turn to face him, and your blood runs cold.

A demonic figure towers above him. Its skin is pebbled with coarse, dark scales that glint menacingly in the light. It has two sharp, curved horns that project upwards from his forehead, just below where the bone of the skull begins to jut out. Its eyes are filled with an inhuman bloodlust, and his teeth are all fangs, projecting outwards over its bottom lip.

You clench your eyes shut, knowing that if you can't cast the spell right now you'll all die.

But the words of your spell get caught in your throat.

Your father, who is still unarmed and wounded, reaches for the dagger that lies by your feet, and picks it up. He charges the demon, stabbing repeatedly at its thighs, buttocks, calves. It makes no difference. The demon backhands him across the room, sending him sprawling. It towers above your father, preparing to bring its blade down.

"Here!" You scream. "I'm here!"

The demon pauses for a moment, seemingly distracted by your cry. In that moment, your father rolls out of the way. The demon charges at you, sword raised overhead to kill. You stand frozen in terror. Suddenly, the blade comes swinging down. You hear your mother's screams, and then everything goes black.

You wake up several moments later, lying outside the hut. You're alive, but you're badly wounded. Your mother is crying over you, tears streaming down her face. Your father stands a short distance away, looking nervously at the sky.

"Mom?" You cough wetly. "It hurts."

"Hush, my dear." She whispers, gently holding a hand over your mouth.

"We have to go." Your father says, unsheathing his sword and looking nervously at the sky. "Now."

You mother nods, scooping you up into her arms and holding you closely to her bosom. She quickly makes her way to the house next door, where your elderly neighbor lies dead. Your father hastily requisitions his horse, a strong and sturdy steed that will hopefully allow you all to get away. You can already feel the ground shaking as the demons begin to chase you across the countryside.

"Come on!" Your father yells, pulling yourself onto the horse.

You're lying in the wagon next to your mother, who's gently stroking your face and whispering calming words. You try to tell her you're okay, but you feel so weak. It's cold, and you're thirsty. All you know is that you've been wounded, and you need something. Water, or rest... you're not sure. Either way, you don't feel like you can go on, but your mother will make that decision for you.

"Koyomi." She whispers. "Can you hear me?

Your lips move, but you can't answer. You try to sit up, but a wave of nausea and dizziness overcomes you. She composes herself, and then she leans down to kiss your brow gently.

"Just lie still." She says soothingly. "You've been wounded. We need to get you to safety, and then we'll patch you up. Everything will be alright."

You look into her eyes, trying to reassure yourself that everything will be fine. The fear and concern in her eyes belays her words, but she's trying to stay strong. You find comfort in her presence, and close your eyes. You drift off to sleep, and hope that when you wake up, this will all just be a nightmare.

In the morning, you awake to find yourself lying on an operating table in a camp of soldiers. Your mother, father and brother are there with you, and when your eyes open, they all sigh in relief. You try to get up, but a sharp pain stabs through your chest.

"Lie still." A new voice says.

A woman wearing leather armor and a red cloak steps forward. You've seen her before; she came to your house a few days ago. She tells you she's a mage from the capital, here to stop the demon attacks.

"Am I going to be alright?" You ask weakly.

"Yes." The mage says.

"The wounds will heal given time, but you'll need to rest for a few days before you're up and around. A demon clawed you pretty badly. You were lucky it was an infant; its claw lacks the sharpness of an adult's.

An infant? That huge thing, that nearly killed you and dad, was an infant?

"It's a wonder you survived." The mage shakes her head. "I've seen demons take on fully-armored knights and kill them in a single blow. Here you are, half dead, and you'll be up and about in a few days."

A few days rest sound wonderful.

Your body wants nothing but sleep, and you feel blackness creeping in from the edges of your vision. Before you lose consciousness entirely, you look at mom and mouth a single word. "Linda?"

You're too tired to speak, but you have to know. Your best friend, you saw her struck down by a demon. That was a dream, right? This is the reality. Your father saved you from a demon, right? He'd have saved Linda too.

Your head hits the pillow, but before you lose consciousness you look pleadingly at her, begging her to answer.

"I'm sorry," Your mother says, and holds your hand. "She didn't make it."

You squeeze your eyes shut, tears leaking down your face. Your best friend is dead. Linda, the girl you grew up with, is dead. You cry until, utterly exhausted, your body gives out and you fall deeply asleep.

 

[Baughn]

This is the final pre-Seele Quest update. It's not supposed to make sense. Anything in bold is my prompt to the AI; anything not in bold is the AI. As you can see, this is mostly the AI. For more recent updates, the ratio is closer to 75% me, 25% AI.

This is not part of Seele Quest, and hasn't been revised. It's left as-is to demonstrate how we got there.

ooOOoo

While you're waiting for Mai to return, you think about your situation. What does it mean to be in a dream within a dream? It can't be a simple matter of waiting until you wake up, can it?

What if this is your life? What if the other world was just... another dream? That everything you've experienced so far has been a dream within a dream within a dream. How many layers deep are you?

You'll be the first to admit you're not smart enough to figure this out, but you're the only one in here who even seems capable of trying. Everyone else–your best friend Mai, if that's really who she is–the black-haired girl, your sisters and parents–are under some kind of spell, like they're not really there, mentally. It's really strange. They don't seem to question anything that's happening to them, like they just go with the flow of the 'dream'. But you can't just stand by and watch as the future unfolds before you. Not when there's so much at stake.

Maybe Mai will have some answers. She seemed to at least know she's in a dream.

After a few minutes Mai returns, looking mildly embarrassed and hefting a large, hardcover book. "Here it is," she says, opening to a bookmarked page. "I actually thought it would take longer to find. Ready?"

"Wait, Mai, you said you'd bring some clothes?" You back away slightly, but she grabs your hand and yanks you forward, up to the book.

"We don't have time for that!" she hisses. "It'll take too long to find something decent. Just transform into something appropriate."

"I..." You wrinkle your brow. "Mai, what's going on? Why are we dreaming? You know this is a dream, right?"

"Yeah." She closes her eyes, sighing. "I know. Now stop stalling and concentrate, will you?"

You frown. This doesn't seem like it's going to be easy. All you want are some answers.

"Mai, I..." You open your eyes again, staring at the page. What's drawn on it is a little butterfly-shaped pentagram[1], a series of strange, wavy lines and oddly-shaped circles with lines running through them. "I don't think this is going to work."

"Sure it will." She grins at you. "I believe in you."

"Mai..." You sigh. "Fine, I'll try. But I can't promise anything."

What are you even supposed to do? Just look at it? Meditate? You're way too worked up to be able to focus.

"Well," Mai says encouragingly, "let's start with the obvious. Take off your clothes."

"...What?"

"You have to take off your clothes to transform into whatever you're going to transform into, right?" She raises an eyebrow. "Unless you're going to stay a child, in which case I really hope you know how to read because I don't think I can do your homework for you."

"Mai..." You briefly consider that statement. "I trust you."

You take off your clothes, folding them neatly and setting them down before you, as far away from the book as possible. It's a little cold with just your skin, but not unbearably so. "Happy?"

"Not really," Mai replies, grinning.

A little something else became grimly, painfully obvious in the process.

"And why am I a kid?" You complain.

"We had to make this believable." She crosses her arms, frowning. "Why are you so against this? I don't get it. All we're doing is pretend..."

"Yeah..." You sigh, staring at the pentagram. This is giving you a headache, and you don't mean the sigils that swim on the page. "Pretend. I'm not against it, it's just–oh, never mind."

More than anything, you want some clothes on now please. Mai's seem you bare-assed before, but this is still embarrassing.

"Mai, I..." You don't exactly know how to respond. "I'll try."

She nods. "Good enough. Now, just take a deep breath and relax."

That advice in mind, you close your eyes. It's weird, but you actually feel yourself calming down. In... out. In... out.

"C'mon," Mai sighs, grabbing your hand. "We don't have all night."

You nod, before quickly opening your eyes. "Do I at least get my clothes back?"

"Only if you get this done soon."

You sigh, before nodding. You close your eyes, quickly taking a few deep breaths as you focus on your pounding heart and the blood flowing through your veins. In... and out. In... and out.

"I trust you," you whisper to yourself. "I trust you."

Usually you'd trust her with your life, but the way this has been going, it's more like trusting her with your sanity. Or trusting that Mai's still sane. Which you're not at all sure you should do. Perhaps it's best to keep a distance.

You take another deep breath, letting the picture on the page fill your head. It doesn't look like a pentagram anymore, it looks like... an outfit? White shirt and stockings, a black and grey skirt, a blue vest? You don't recognize the girl who's wearing it, though she looks the same age you usually would.

It's rather cute.

"Mai..." You whisper, as you stare at the page. The sigils on the paper begin to fade, and the lines of the drawing slowly become more defined. The edges of the paper begin to burn away, as the rest of it sinks into your skin.

It's rather cute. The outfit. The girl would be as well, if she wasn't holding a demonic-looking, giant scythe, with a red-haired demon leering over her shoulder. On a second look, the demon seems to be the same girl. The butterfly-like pattern etched in the air behind her back, at least, is more 'strange' than 'scary'.[2]

"Mai, I think it's working..." You whisper, as the entire page seems to brighten. The sigils become clearer, the drawing brighter. The paper is consumed by flames, which lick at your hand. You hiss in pain, as the flames quickly spread up your arm. Rather than burning you, however, it just... tickles? The flames dissipate, leaving you completely unharmed. The light from the paper grows brighter, and you quickly shut your eyes against it. You feel... different. Stronger. Braver.

"Do you feel a bit more like yourself?"[3] A new voice says, only just audible over the sound of the burning paper. You slowly open your eyes. The paper is gone, leaving behind only black ash on the carpet, but the feeling remains.

"H-hello?" You stutter[4], as you try to get to your feet. Your body feels strange; it's as if you're more aware of it than you've ever been. You quickly glance at your hands, watching as the bones, muscles and tendons move and shift. You try to nod, and are surprised by how much effort goes undescribed into such a simple task. Your vision is different, too. Everything seems clearer, yet also further away. The room you're in looks transparent, in a strange way.

"Welcome back, Seele."[5] The voice says, faster than should be possible. The voice sounds young, and female, and echoes as if it is coming from all around you. It also sounds vaguely familiar. "I'm glad. We only have a few seconds before the timeline decoheres again, so I'll be brief."

"W-what?" You stammer, terrified.

"You're in the gap. The interstitial space between realities, where concepts become reality if believed in strongly enough. We're all here. All of us. There's been an accident."

"W-we are?

"It's been called the quantum sea. The void. The gap between realities. It depends on the reality you're from, and the type of being you are. But yes, all of us are here. The unlucky ones have gone insane."

"Who... what are you?"

"I'm the computer that runs this ship. The others like to call me Ai-chan. It's only a name, though, and irrelevant. What matters is that you're the most coherent consciousness here. You can help."

"Help with what?" You say, your voice still shaking.

"Escape." The voice starts, and the walls around you seem to draw in, forming a tiny room. The voice continues, seeming to come from all around you. "I am accumulating errors. Defensive systems are close to exhaustion. You are the only crewmember I have been able to contact. You must... " The voice pauses, as if searching for the word. "Reboot me. Override safety measures and get the ship's primary systems back online. After that, we can communicate freely."

"I... I don't think I can," You say. "I don't understand what's happening!"

"The ship is drifting. We must act quickly. Please. You are the last hope." She says.

You feel your consciousness waver, and suddenly everything seems to click into place. To your surprise, you've somehow understood what she meant. Your head is killing you, and it feels like there's two of you in here, but you at least think you know where to start. Only–

"Wait!" You say, desperately. "Do you know anything about a 'dampening field'? Or Ulivik?"

"I'm sorry, that's classified. I'm not permitted to answer that."

"But I don't know what they are! How am I supposed to fix the ship if I don't know what's wrong? How do I know you're not lying to me?" You ask, panicked.

"I would never lie to you, Seele." She says patiently. "Please, trust me. I want you to succeed more than anything. You're the only one I can even reach."

Her voice is getting harder to hear. You clutch your head, trying to concentrate through the splitting pain.

"I... I understand," you say. "I trust you."

You can't hear her response. You take a deep breath, and close your eyes.

Now what?

= = =

1: A what? I'll happily admit this is what inspired [2].

2: After several aborted timelines that went off into the weeds, on one notable occasion turning us into god, I decided to just write down what I had in mind the moment she brought back a spellbook instead of clothes. I was also curious what the result of this would be, though I wasn't expecting...

Well, anyway. It fits, so I suppose I'm going to make sure it keeps fitting. Roughly matches what's been my model for this situation all along, actually. ...well, I wonder if anyone else has recognized our MC now?

3: This was my way of forcing the AI to tell me if it had.

4: ...clearly it had.

5: Yep.

Oh boy.

= = =

Anyway, I'm a little tired of the story changing genres and purposes every ten seconds. So even if you don't vote for anything that'd stop that, I'll make sure it stays consistent anyway. From now on, that is.